Conference turris::scandia

155.0. "No asylum for Nazi war criminal?" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Mon Oct 20 1986 09:29

Associated Press Mon 20-OCT-1986 00:40                          Sweden-Linnas

          Report Government to Refuse Asylum to Alleged War Criminal
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A Swedish newspaper said Sunday that the
    government has decided to refuse asylum to alleged Nazi war criminal
    Karl Linnas, a U.S. resident who has been sentenced to death in the
    Soviet Union. The national daily Svenska Dagbladet said a government
    meeting decided this week to deny entry to Linnas, 67, a resident of
    Long Island, N.Y., who has sought asylum on grounds that he is living
    with a Swedish woman. 
    
    Under-Secretary of Immigration Jonas Widgren declined to confirm or
    deny the report. "The case is still being prepared and the government
    has not yet made a formal decision," he said. 
    
    Linnas has denied all charges of war crimes, and has appealed to the
    U.S. Supreme Court to reverse any court decisions to strip him of his
    American citizenship and deport him to the Soviet Union. Six rulings by
    U.S. courts have said Linnas acquired his citizenship on false grounds,
    because his wartime activities were not known at the time of his
    immigration in 1951. 
                                                                    
    He was tried in absentia in the Soviet Union, and sentenced to death in
    1962 for allegedly being responsible for 12,000 prisoners' death as the
    commander of a Nazi war camp during 1941-43 near Tartu in Estonia, a
    Baltic state now part of the Soviet Union. The Estonian-born Linnas was
    accused of personally having participated in executions of thousands of
    prisoners. 
    
    The Linnas case presents a no-win dilemma for the Swedish government,
    which is an outspoken opponent of the death penalty but also morally
    repulsed by war crimes. Swedes remember as a shameful episode the
    traumatic deportation of 146 Baltic refugees from Sweden to Soviet
    Union in 1946, seen as an appeasing action toward the emerging
    superpower neighbor. Many of the refugees, who the Soviets said had
    participated in German military operations, went to labor camps. 
    
    Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, an opponent of the death
    penalty, has appealed to Sweden to accept Linnas on the grounds of his
    age and doubts concerning the evidence presented by the Soviets. 

Associated Press Wed 19-NOV-1986 18:00                           Sweden-Nazis

         Swedish Leader Says Alleged War Criminals to Be Investigated
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson said Wednesday
    his government will look into the cases of 12 alleged Nazi war
    criminals believed to be living in Sweden, even though the statute of
    limitations apparently prevents their prosecution. The 12, accused of
    crimes against Jews in Latvia and Estonia after those Baltic states
    were occupied by the German army in 1941, were identified by the Simon
    Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. 
    
    The statute of limitation in Sweden is 25 years for crimes carrying
    life sentences, said Johan Munch, head of the Justice Ministry's legal
    department. "Their crimes have already lapsed and Swedish law does not
    allow extradition to another country" after 25 years, he told The
    Associated Press. 
    
    But Carlsson, a Social Democrat, told reporters the government will
    "definitely look into it." Asked by reporters if the limitation statute
    could be changed, Carlsson said, "I am not a lawyer. I do not want to
    make judicial comments." 
    
    The list of 12 was given to the Swedish Embassy in Washington on
    Tuesday. Officials at the Wiesenthal Center had said they might publish
    the names if Sweden does not take action. Leaders of the Los
    Angeles-based center, which is named after Nazi hunter Simon
    Wiesenthal, said the list was compiled from an international archive of
    postwar migration data. 

Associated Press Thu 12-FEB-1987 20:40                      Sweden-War Crimes

                Sweden Rejects Request from Wiesenthal Center
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Sweden on Thursday rejected a request from the
    Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles to take action against 12 people
    who allegedly committed war crimes during World War II. The government
    said in a statement that it had examined the center's claims about 12
    people of Baltic origin. It found that only four were alive and that
    the period of prosecution had expired. 
    
    In its request of last November, the center also asked the government
    to investigate how many Nazi war criminals came to Sweden after the war
    ended in 1945. The government said in its reply that the issue had
    already been looked into immediately after the war.